Darren’s second tip is:
Run a First Time Reader Audit on your Blog.
This is a very refreshing tip. The first time I have come across this idea of asking someone who has not read our blogs before, to read and then, observe their reading patterns when faced with our blogs. When we come across fresh ideas or tips like that, my tip is,
Don’t be sceptical
I have my fair share of scepticism when I go surfing for fresh ideas. Sometimes I find ideas so far out that I just skip the whole article and go looking somewhere else. I did not even give the benefit of doubt to the writer, that maybe, just maybe his ideas might work.
Perhaps my scepticism stems from the fact that there are too many guru wannabes about giving out imaginary tips that only works in their imagination. Some are just theories which have been never proven practically, and some are just ideas copied from somewhere and altered a bit to make it theirs. I simply hate to read blogs that says something like, “I am going to teach you…” or, “I am going to reveal to you…” then proceeds to feed you with tips that you have read a thousand times somewhere. Perhaps they are targeting the newbies who has just started, but I think it would have been nice of them if they had said something like, “I would like to share with you something I learned from…”
Anyway, my scepticism has been a major obstacle for me in trying out new ideas. If I had been less sceptical and tried out all the tips that I have read, maybe I would have really found one or two that might just work for me. Coupled this scepticism with my laziness, you see before your eyes, a blogger that is destined to fail. So my second tip to be build a better blog is,
Don’t be a Sceptical Blogger
Ya, I agree. Being sceptical, paranoid and listening too much to ‘what the probloggers said’ can sometimes become stumbling block. LiewCF warned me about many things but I die-die oso wanna try out and get my backside grilled to find out myself. But doing paid post is probably one of my best decision and rewarding risk I took. ALL probloggers said, ‘DON’T’ and I don’t care.
I listened to you…
Like you said, it’s good to keep an open mind but then the conclusion you have to derive it yourself.
There’s a lot to what you just said. I think the reason why we should take wanna-be gurus seriously (heck, I’m one, so the bias might be talking here) is that blogging is to a degree like conversation. Sometimes one can set down things authoritatively, but at other times, new thoughts are being tried out.
On a deeper level, all the business advice that cultivates success can be said to be the same advice which ends in failure. No one looks for red tape or counter-productive behavior from employees or oneself. But all that stuff happens because people get burnt out, etc.
The problem is finding a proper filter. There are thousands of legitimate ideas out there for improving your blog performance (and plenty of bad ideas) but it is easy to spend too much time tweaking your blog and not enough time writing. I know I have been guilty of that from time to time.
As with anything, sometimes advice that seems absurd actually works, and advice that seems totally commonsense to many of us is new and approached skeptically by others.